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The Arkansas Tech baseball team played its first home game of the season at Baswell Field on Tuesday, Feb. 16, facing off against the Pittsburg State Gorillas.
The Wonder Boys won the game 10-6 due to a strong offensive performance led by Christian Olea, a junior from Tucson, Arizona, and Grant Jones, a junior from Little Rock, who both had two hits.
Logan Schwenke, a redshirt senior from Chandler, Arizona, delivered a strong two-run homer in the bottom of the third to boost the Wonder Boys.
The bullpen was called upon frequently with eight pitchers throwing against the Gorillas. The pitching staff recorded 13 strikeouts and only five walks. Will Horton, a senior from Fort Worth, Texas, was given the win on the mound for ATU making it his second win of the year.
“It felt great to get on the mound at our home field and give the crowd a great showing. We have a strong club, and we are excited to see how our program grows as the season continues,” said pitcher Kade Cartright, a sophomore from Little Rock.
The team went 16-8 last year at home during the season with a 15-10 record on the road. The team looked to continue its winning streak at home during its next game at Baswell Field on Tuesday, Feb. 20, against Southern Arkansas University.
The Wonder Boys also went on the road to Shawnee, Oklahoma over the weekend, where they played one game on Saturday and two on Sunday against Oklahoma Baptist.
The Oklahoma Baptist Bison were 6-2 before playing the series against the Wonder Boys. The Bison swept the Wonder Boys in three games.
The first pitch of the weekend was thrown at 3 p.m. on Saturday which ended with a score of 7-6, lasting 11 innings. The Wonder Boys recorded 10 hits on 42 at-bats. The pitching staff recorded 11 strikeouts and walked eight batters through the course of the game. ATU had some struggles in the field with six errors.
The second game of the series was played on Sunday at noon. The Wonder Boys tightened up on the defensive end only giving up one error but couldn’t overpower the Bisons’ 10-hit game. The final score was 7-5. Jack Rector, Mason Willis and Simon Murry all pitched during the game recording a total of seven strikeouts and four walks.
The final game of the series was played at 3 p.m. on Bobby Cox Field at Ford Park. The Bison recorded the final win of the series with a score of 5-4 only playing seven innings due to the double header. The Wonder Boys had six hits on five runs scored while giving up five errors in the field. The pitching staff recorded five strikeouts and three walks.
